Hi guys.It's been a while since I've been on the site and I must say things are looking very nice indeed.While I've been absent, I've actually been building Eduard's interesting little Westland Lysander in 1/48. It's one of their lovely "Profi-Pack" kits which means you get all kinds of goodies in the box including some PE which in this instance, is their pre-coloured stuff. There are usually more decal options offered too, in this case, five.Anyone not familiar with this aircraft can check it our here:http://www.warbirdalley.com/lysander.htm

Strange looking bird but later in the war its VSTOL (Very Short Take Off and Landing) capabilities were used by the British to full effect and it was used to drop agents into occupied France shrouded in deep secrecy. One of the main bases used for these purposes was at RAF Tempsford and so these aircraft became known as the "Tempsford Taxi". It's one of these aircraft that I'm building. If you look at the photo of the aircraft in the link above, you'll notice a pretty large greenhouse type canopy. This aircraft was a two-seater with the rear seat usually accommodating a gunner but in the case of the "Taxi", the spy and his gear would be in the rear seat.The cockpit interior of this kit was pretty complex and I'll do another thread later dealing with that. The purpose if this thread is canopy masking which can be scary but needn't be.

Another thing included in an Eduard "Profi Pack" are their fantastic, pre-cut masks for just about everything that needs masking. However, I decided to use my tried and tested method so I could crank out this tutorial.People use all kinds of things for this, some folks wrestle with Tamiya tape and I'm frankly baffled about how they do it. Personally, I use "Bare Metal Foil". This is a technique I picked up reading the pretty awful "How-To" manuals put out by Francois Verlinden. His publications are fantastic eye-candy but not very good in terms of instruction. This one was pretty straightforward though.Bare Metal Foil is a fairly old-school product used to create natural metal finishes on models before the advent of Alclad and its descendents (CANCER CAUSING CHEMICALS. I NEVER USE IT EVER!!!). Here's my old pack of foil...

This stuff is basically self-adhesive tin foil and it's so easy to use.

The way to use it is to cut a small piece of foil from the sheet that's big enough to cover the panel you wish to protect from paint. In this pic, I've already done the front windshield...

Remove the foil from its backing sheet and roughly place it on the clear part.

Then burnish it down on to the surface with a cotton tip and then when it's pretty flush, use a toothpick to gently push it all the way down to the edge of the canopy frame. You should end up with something like this...

At this point, it's fairly easy to use a brand new blade on your trusty hobby knife to cut the foil along the edges of the canopy frames. When you're finished, it should look like this...

Do the same for each "glass" panel on your clear part and voila...

The Bare Metal Foil is easy to use, not too sticky, will conform to complex curves or any shape at all really and it very forgiving to use. Its adhesive doesn't mar the clear parts in any way, even if left on for months and is pretty easy to remove even after several coats of whatever you shoot at it. I got mine from an online supplier in Australia but it shouldn't be too hard to get, particularly in the US and UK.I hope this is helpful. I reckon this is a great technique. Easy to do and works really well.Happy modelling.

First, I love the background you gave on this aircraft...I wasn't aware of it's existence and cool history!

I was also taken by your description of, 'reading the pretty awful "How-To" manuals put out by Francois Verlinden'....which was an eyeopener for me simply because I thought it was just me!!! For such an high profile name in the hobby, I was of the same opinion and confused!

Next, I loved the 'baffled' comment on Tamiya tape use....hahaha, I gotta tell 'ya, my main method was Painters' Tape

But most importantly of all, thank you sooooooooo much for putting together this tutorial!!! Eye opening stuff, and it makes a difficult and important part of the process less mystifying to me!

I've tried using frisket, and different low tack tapes but they all 'spring' around, which drove me nuts! I am assuming the metal foil is more pliable and less 'springy' at the edges?

Mate, the metal foil stays where you want it to stay and doesn't behave like frisket at all, which tends to flatten out and not conform to compound curved surfaces well.

Nothing against Mr Verlinden at all but his "How To" manuals don't really explain "how to" at all. They tend to be more photos of his work which are lovely to look at but not that informative in my opinion. I also suspect his English isn't spectacular.Try the foil bro'...like falling off a log.